West Michigan Pride Festival showcases diversity of region's LGBT community

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - In the five years Joseph Workman has been attending West Michigan’s Pride Festival, he’s seen the annual event grow, not only in size but diversity, too.

As he surveyed the festival grounds Saturday afternoon, he saw both old and young members of the LGBT community, as well as residents of different race and ethnicity.

“I look forward to the day when it’s no longer about black, white, yellow, purple, straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual," said Workman, 28, who was among a group of attendees representing the West Michigan Gay Men’s Chorus. ”I look forward to a time when we can just look around and celebrate humanity and all the diversity it brings.”

Organizers of the event, now in its 25th year, said they were expecting between 15,000 and 20,000 people to attend the event, which on Sunday will feature a parade through downtown Grand Rapids.

Later this month, a similar event will be held in Holland. The Holland Area Pride Festival is to take place on June 29 at Centennial Park and Park Theatre.

Yogi Whitt, an organizer of the event, said the festival is an opportunity for LGBT residents to celebrate their community. The festival features music, dance and food, as well as information on organizations that support and advocate for the LGBT community.

“We want to bring awareness to the fact that who we are has changed,” she said. “We’re parents. We raise families. We work. We do the same things that everyone else does. The only difference is who we love.”

It wasn’t only gay and lesbian residents who visited.

Tricia Kregg, of Byron Center, said she came to the event to support her gay and lesbian friends. Plus, it’s “a place where you can come and be weird and it’s OK,” she joked.

“I love coming to support them and the community in general,” Kregg said after checking one of the many vendor booths, which sold items such as jewelry and t-shirts, but also promoted local businesses, including Fifth Third Bank.

Among those vendors was Diversions, a gay bar located at 10 Fountain St. NW. Brian Hobbs, 44, a bartender at the business, said the festival showcases the many “cliques” within the LGBT community.

“We’re just like everybody else, but more glitter," he said.

His partner, Scott Vriezema, agreed.

“A lot of people stereotype the gay community,” he said. “They think we’re all running down the street screaming ‘Mary.’ “But we’re not all flamboyant.”